The transformation of design platform under system thinking

Abstract

This study examines the organizational transformation of digital design platforms (DDPs) to present the considerations of DDPs’ value propositions, service offering, and sustainable business models. When we face large, complex, systemic transformational challenges, especially during the pandemic, we must make meaningful changes to a DDP to rise to these social-technological challenges internally and externally to generate positive social impacts and create value for design individuals and communities. Due to COVID-19, people’s daily lives, interactions, and work experiences, and communication patterns dramatically changed, which significantly influenced organizations across scales and industries. DDPs have also been hit by the social-technological impact of COVID-19. We conducted seven semi-structured expert interviews and demonstrated ten case studies across three categories: design competitions, design professional associations, and design companies about DDP transformation associated with COVID-19 through the lens of system engineering. The goal is to analyze organizational change and its impacts on a DDP’s service offering, business model, and organizational culture, in an effort to better prepare new capabilities in the era of social-technological transformation. We identified four key takeaways: (1) craft new partnership connections; (2) identify criteria for transformation; (3) create and extend participants’ engagement level, and (4) leverage collective talents and sources.